Gregg Williams had been the subject of a two-year investigation by the NFL for allegedly being a party to a bounty system in the league. Meanwhile, regular readers of the Tribune’s Chicago Sports section know Matt Bowen well as both NFL player and sports writer.

Last Friday, those men and those worlds collided.

Williams is the former defensive coordinator of the New Orleans Saints and other high profile jobs in the NFL, and now works for the St. Louis Rams. The accusations against him in the NFL investigation are that he allegedly paid out cash rewards to players while with the Saints for -- among other things -- knocking opponents out of the game. The profile matched the bonus: Bigger name, better pay.

Bowen is a local kid done good. He grew up in the suburbs. He played in the Big Ten, at Iowa. He played in the NFL for seven seasons. When he came back to Chicago to raise his family, he got his master’s from DePaul. He aspires to be a journalist. And like many NFL scouts all those years ago, we like his upside in this field. For now, Bowen is regular freelance contributor to the Tribune’s coverage of the Bears and the NFL.

On Friday, Bowen and his editors has some important things to decide.

Bowen, whose NFL career included playing under Williams while with the Washington Redskins, wrestled with whether -- and if so, how -- to tell what knew from his days in the nation’s capitol. He was torn by his long-held duty to honor the code of the lockerroom vs. the desire to tell the truth, as journalists are wont to do.

He drafted his first version of the column. We talked about detail, how to get more in the piece, how to put readers in those makeshift meeting rooms on Saturday nights before the games. He wrote it again. We worked on it some more. The final draft was sent to the copy desk for a fresh set of eyes around 11 p.m. Friday night.